Our top 10 tracks: October 2017

While at work, we enjoy listening to loads of new music. That is why we have decided that the Mixvibes staff will pick their ten favorite tracks of every months for your enjoyment. These are our top 10 tracks of October 2017. Check them out and perhaps you’ll discover new sounds!

Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, elsewhere known as Dominick Fernow (of Prurient and Vatican Shadow fame), delivered a new expansive album early this month, Ambient Black Magic, further delving deeper into the depths of the rain-soaked forest soil that the previous LPs already inhabited. This massive remix from techno royalty Substance kicks the subs yet up a notch and its deep percussion and dreamy synth washes are sure to make an impression on the floor.

Helena Hauff – Gift

Label: Ninja Tune | Style: Raw Electro

This track from electronic wizard Helena Hauff came out ahead of her new EP on Ninja Tune (to which she has transitioned along with the rest of the Werk Discs crew it seems), and features some gritty, murky bass placed atop unusual melodic lines from the German producer. Its delightfully garage-recorded sort of quality kept us coming back for more, and we’ll highly recommend you check out the accompanying EP. Perhaps a new album soon?

Kelela – Truth or Dare

Label: Warp | Style: Experimental R&B

Kelela’s debut Take Me Apart is one of the most consistently rewarding and coherent albums to have come out all year, so plucking one track out of it for this selection was far from an easy task, so keep in mind that if you haven’t listened to this album yet, you’re missing out big time. Truth or Dare is perhaps one of the more overtly anthemic tracks of the record, and its execution is quite simply perfect, a smooth sultry number that is bound to stay in your brain for a while.

Tzusing – 地心引力抓不住你

Tzusing has had quite a year. After the release of his debut album 東方不敗 for L.I.E.S. he comes back with this absolutely devastating EP for Bedouin Records. Pulling away from the more straightforward techno of the album, this new EP goes through a hodgepodge of styles informed by classic 80s EBM, including the above cut featuring some killer booming drums and wonderfully acrobatic vocal processing.

Cab Drivers – Backside 50

Label: Cabinet Records | Style: Deep Techno

The German duo Cab Drivers is back… The founders of the eponymous Cabinet Records have just dropped this track that is true to their style: melancholic chords with acid overtones alongside a bewitching bassline. Whether they release tracks under their other aliases Horseshoe or The Poor Knight, those guys never disappoint and you should definitively keep an eye on their next releases. If you are in Munich, Germany, on the 4th of November, catch them at Harry Klein!

JP Enfant – Virtual Midnight Drama

Label: A.R.T.less | Style: Space Techno

The newest EP on pristine Mojuba Records offshoot A.R.T.less is a lesson in subtle techno restraint. Our favorite track being this one, a sparse cosmic cut that pulls from the farther reaches of the universe to translate the signals of distant stars into sonic data so that our ears can process and fully enjoy it. The reverbs are fathoms-deep, the pads are positively chilling (in a good way), and the general atmosphere of intrigue and wonder makes it a clear winner.

Hostom – A

Label: Hostom | Style: Deep Minimal

A mysterious label, an unknown artist behind each release and a groovy minimal track that hits all the right notes on the dancefloor, such is the essence of the HOSTOM style. The label’s sixth release is made up of percussive snares, hypnotic synths and spatial effects in the background. Whether you’re listening it behind your desk or in front of a Funktion one soundsytem, this track won’t leave your feet idle!

Lee Gamble – Ghost

In his newest album since 2014, Lee Gamble shares what is probably his most accessible batch of tracks yet, still wildly experimental by most standards, but also noticeably less woozy and more laser-sharp. Ghost is the album’s near-closer, and takes Gamble’s well-documented love for drum n’bass and brings it to its logical conclusion, delivering a sumptuous track, worthy of standing alongside the heyday of labels like Good Looking Records and Metalheadz…

Not Waving – Children Are Our Phuture

Label: Diagonal | Style: Alternative Electronic

Barely out of the gate, Not Waving’s new album on Diagonal, the strangely-titled Good Luck, is an awesomely quirky, off-the-wall treat, full of new-wave informed sounds and odd vocal snippets. Children Are Our Phuture is constructed around a hypnotic voice loop upon which Not Waving builds a constantly-evolving drum workout (mit crunchy bassline) that feels as suited to big club PAs as it is to headphones while dancing around your bedroom like a maniac.

DJ QU – No Poetry

Label: Strength Music Recordings | Style: Deep House

This latest DJ QU track, No Poetry, from the same-titled EP, is a superb slice of atonal deep space funk that takes you on a sonic journey. Anchored around a Shepard tone-like sequence that seems like it’s endlessly falling upwards, and underpinned by a solid, trudging kick drum and delicate hi-hat and snare brushes, with DJ QU’s characteristically deft drum programming, what could in other hands be a samey and uneventful cut turns into refined deep house art.

Did we miss some amazing track you’d have loved to see up here? Tell us your October favorites on Facebook or Instagram!

See you next month!

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